No. 10: Ras Baraka POWER 100

March 26, 2018 at 3:00 AM

With almost $2 billion in construction underway and deficits totaling nearly $100 million now a thing of the past, Newark is on a roll. And that’s not considering its place on the short list to become home to Amazon’s second headquarters.

Much of this success can be attributed to Baraka’s deft ball-handling after taking a pass from his successor, now-U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. Still, the state’s largest city continues to wrestle with unemployment, crime and the blight familiar to most urban centers.

Among the things on Baraka’s to-do list is winning re-election in November and continuing work on Newark 2020, an ambitious program to connect 2,020 unemployed Newark residents to good-paying jobs by 2020.